Computers. They're wonderful machines and valuable assets to any SciFi mission. They can perform calculations and operations with pinpoint accuracy at the speed of light and [[PhotographicMemory never forget anything]] they learn. There's just one problem: a computer doesn't make a very good friend. Try to get one to empathize with you, and they'll probably just rattle off TechnoBabble, [[DeadpanSnarker tell you why you're wrong]], and explain their theories [[StrawVulcan on the pointlessness of human emotion]], all in a hollow, monotone voice. Hmm, could there possibly be any way to make an AI entity seem more... [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots human]]?

Why, yes, there is: just give it a personality chip. Soon, your robot will be emulating happiness, anger, depression, sexual attraction, and any other multitude of feelings it's programmed for.

However, be warned: when a robot has a personality chip installed, they will make a point of [[AsYouKnow excessively referring to it]]. Also, feelings aren't always emulated very well and can result in [[HilarityEnsues very odd behavior]].

Personality chips also have various bits that fail or overheat or turn off easily, leading to robots blowing their anger circuits or engaging sarcasm mode at you. They can't say "ThatMakesMeFeelAngry" or phrases useful in human form; this is a feature, not a bug.

Compare MoralityChip, HeartDrive.----!!Examples:

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[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]* ''Anime/SaberMarionetteJ'' has "Maiden Chips". For some reason, having a full-scale female personality in one android is too much, so they had to split it into TheThreeFacesOfEve.* ''Lightnovel/FullMetalPanic'' pulled this off to some extent. When Al (the Arbalest's AI) was first introduced, he was purely there for coordinating the Arbalest's systems; Sousuke didn't like him one bit because Al refused to give out potentially life-saving information regarding the Lambda Driver. In fact, Al's creator gave him a basic grasp of human emotions and concepts, much to Sousuke's surprise. By the third season, he started demonstrating some human traits, even trying to crack a joke in the series finale when Sousuke was being frustrated at the Lambda Driver's instability.[[/folder]]

[[folder: Comic Books]]* As seen in the comic book incarnation of ComicBook/MegaMan, as well as other takes, most robots have an integrated circuit chip, called an IC Chip, that acts as this. Its unique properties also make it extremely difficult to recreate once it's been destroyed, which probably serves as the reason why Dr. Wily can't just mass-rebuild his Robot Masters all the time.[[/folder]]

[[folder: Film ]]* Many robots from ''Film/BicentennialMan'' employed personality chips. When Andrew decided to "upgrade" Galatea's, this resulted in a case of apparent robot PMS that scared the hell out of Rupert.* The premise in ''Film/AIArtificialIntelligence'' is built around this trope. What would happen if robots felt emotion, if they had the ability to love? In the case of David, an endangered child, a road trip to a red-light district, and a two-thousand-year hibernation in ice... just to find a fictional blue fairy that could change him into a real boy so his "mommy" would love him again.* ''Film/StarTrekGenerations''. The B plot of the movie is Data having an emotion chip[[note]]he acquired the chip in the course of the television show, but at the time decided to wait and consider things first[[/note]] implanted in his computer brain. It malfunctions and he has to learn how to control his emotions.[[/folder]]

[[folder: Literature ]]* ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'': Parodied by The Sirius Cybernetics Corporation and its robots with "Genuine People Personalities." The result is the sullen, sarcastic Marvin.--->'''Marvin''': I'm a personality prototype. You can tell, can't you.** And, of course, the "happiness" factor can be made permanent by replacing the chip involved with a piece of wire, resulting in the permanently euphoric (and subservient) Colin.** Eddie the Shipboard Computer is annoyingly upbeat and cheerful. At one point they try to use the 'backup personality', but it's even worse.* In Charles Stross' ''Literature/SaturnsChildren'', robots have "soul chips", which contain not their personalities, per se, but a recording of their experiences and thoughts, so if one were to wear someone else's soul chip, one to some extent wears that other robot's personality as well.[[/folder]]

[[folder: Live-Action TV ]]* Kryten from ''Series/RedDwarf'' is famous for the way his guilt chip constantly acts up.** Rimmer's slideshow of his field trip to the diesel engine deck made his interest chip melt.** The more advanced mechanoid who was supposed to replace him wore out his sanity chip in some three million years of flying through space trying to find him. [[FridgeLogic Somehow]], the status of ''Kryten's'' sanity chip has never come up in spite of [[MummiesAtTheDinnerTable the circumstances in which the others first met him.]] (Thought to be fair, Kryten has had the benefit of Lister doing maintenance on him).** Of course, Kryten's sanity is in doubt on first meeting him, as he's been caring for three crew members that have been dead for so long that they are just ''skeletons dressed in uniforms propped up at the table''. * On ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', Data eventually acquires an emotion chip. This doesn't immediately solve every problem he's had with relating to humans up to this point, unfortunately - he still gets confused by a lot of things, and occasionally has trouble dealing with the emotional impact of various situations. So much so that one of the Star Trek Novels has him ordered to have it removed. -->'''Data:''' Captain, I believe I am feeling... anxiety. It is an intriguing sensation. A most distracting...-->'''Jean-Luc Picard:''' Data, I'm sure it's a fascinating experience, but perhaps you should deactivate your emotion chip for now.-->'''Data:''' Good idea, sir. ''[beep]'' Done.-->'''Jean-Luc Picard:''' Data, there are times that I envy you.* ''Series/{{Lexx}}'''s robot head 790 was never meant to have a personality, but one was imprinted by a brainwashing machine on the [[WetwareCPU tiny cube of human brain tissue]] that was installed to drive the [[{{Cyborg}} interface with his organic body]]. Remove the cube, and he reverts to monotonically uttering "you are not an authorized person."* In ''Series/TheSarahConnorChronicles'', [[RobotGirl Cameron]] has the "Allison" persona, an apparently complete personality that is stored in her chip that is activated by damage to her processor. "Allison" is based on a series of interviews she had in the future with a girl named Allison Young, [[spoiler: whom Cameron subsequently killed]]. While [[BecomingTheMask being]] "Allison," Cameron feels a wide range of emotions: happiness, sadness, surprise, grief, panic, and -''especially''- anger.* The "synthetic soul" chips in ''Series/AlmostHuman''. MX series androids don't have them, DRN series do. This makes the [=DRN=]s better at dealing with humans and able to make leaps of logic, but also makes them more erratic.[[/folder]]

[[folder: Newspaper Comics ]]* ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}} built a robot at one point that became a jerkass. In the end Dogbert installed a "shame module" programed with the combined shame and guilt of every religion on earth which turned him into a worrying, guilt-ridden machine that rued the day it was created. Dogbert named it Ruebert.[[/folder]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]* ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'': [=GLaDOS=] has cores for morality, curiosity, anger, and...let's call it [[MadnessMantra "cake."]] You can watch how her personality degenerates as you destroy them all.** ''VideoGame/{{Portal 2}}'': it's revealed that there were in fact much more cores manufactured to control [=GLaDOS=], including [[spoiler:[[IdiotBall stupidity core, who went on to call himself "]]]][[IdiotBall Wheatley]][[spoiler:", adventure core, fact-spouting core and a core that is obsessed with space.]]* Aigis from ''[[{{Persona3}} Persona 3]]'' has one of these, located on the back of her neck. When you max her [[RelationshipValues Social Link]], she asks you to touch it, [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything tells you not to be alarmed if she screams or makes any sudden movements when you do so, and asks you to remove her ribbon to get at it]].** In the same mold, the Innocents in ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIMAGINE'' were created as mere mechanical beings, but as they started accruing experiences and memories, started acquiring human traits, eventually rejecting the idea their feelings were simulated and becoming more and more humanlike as time passes. [[spoiler: Rasputin]] from ''VideoGame/RaidouKuzunohaVsTheSoullessArmy'' is a {{Cyborg}}, yet [[spoiler:he]] appears to have developed an [[TheHedonist openly hedonistic personality]] [[spoiler:most likely based on his RealLife persona]], taking to bars with quite a lot of gusto and openly and frequently visiting the Capital's Red Light District.* In the webgame ''[[http://armorgames.com/play/5706/viricide Viricide]]'', EXADI, the computer that you are helping to disinfect from an unknown corruption, has a Human Emotion Simulation Core. As you continue to clean out the corruption she was suffering, it becomes clear that she has developed abandonment issues. [[spoiler:Said [[FinalBoss Human Emotion Simulation Core]] is the final boss of the game, [[TearJerker and EXADI will basically 'die' when the boss is defeated.]] She'll still be mostly operational, yes, but any sense of awareness and self she had will be completely gone. She wants this due to the fact that her creator committed suicide, and she justifies it by telling you, the player, that she's not human.]]* The Music/{{Vocaloid}} song "Kokoro" is based around this trope.* Retrieving and re-installing a series of [[PersonalityChip Personality Chips]] (and their associated upgrades) forms a chain of side quests in the ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' add-on ''Old World Blues.'' Though the merchant interface ''does'' note that they are all "simulated personalities."* In ''VideoGame/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaAsPortable: The Gears of Destiny'', the main difference between the [[SuperPrototype first]] [[spoiler:Eltria Gears]] and the later ones is that Granz Florian got a bit too overenthusiastic in programming them, accidentally giving them human-level personalities. He removed this feature in the later versions since they're meant to be mere tools for restoring [[DeathWorld Eltria]] [[spoiler:and raised the first Gears as his daughters]].* In the VisualNovel ''VisualNovel/BionicHeart'', it seems odd that the android Tanya has memories and is able to express emotions. It's less confusing when you learn that [[spoiler:the personality chip in her head is actually a human brain]].* In ''VideoGame/TheSims 3'' expansion pack "Into the Future", you can craft [=PlumBots=] (which differ from [=SimBots=] or the Servos from ''The Sims 2'') and equip them with Trait chips that replicate certain aspects of basic Sim behavior.[[/folder]]

[[folder: Web Comics ]]* Ping from ''Webcomic/{{Megatokyo}}'' has a personality system which, being made for non-[[{{H-Game}} erotic]] dating sims, also includes a shame subroutine. She also reverses this trope by saying her feelings are ''real'', not simulated.* A PersonalityChip is all that's left of the #13 robot from ''Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt''.* Kinesis' Computer from [[http://evilplan.thewebcomic.com/comics/482813/abuse-of-power/ Evil Plan]]'' has an emoticon for a face, which changes along with its emotions. The gleeful way it constantly teases Kinesis and the minions is also to be noted.* In Webcomic/{{Starslip}} Vanderbeam tells the new robotic captain that it is missing "the human element". The robot has a subroutine to emulate this [[spoiler: which requires only 58Kb]]* ''Webcomic/NinePlanetsWithoutIntelligentLife'''s "erogenous zone circuits" allow robots to experience...well, you know. "Bohemian drive circuits" make robots more individualistic and adventurous [[spoiler:via the placebo effect]].[[/folder]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', "I Second That Emotion": after callously flushing Nibbler down the toilet, Bender gets an "empathy chip" installed so that he felt every emotion Leela was feeling. When the gang got in trouble and Bender was the only one able to help, Leela had to channel her greedy, selfish side to get him to be his former self.** In "How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back" Bender's personality is downloaded into a disk, leaving him unable to do anything except say in a monotone voice, "I am Bender. Please insert girder."** Also from Bender, "As a robot, I have no human emotions, and [[TinMan that makes me feel sad.]]" * In ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'', X9, one of the X model robots built by mad scientists for Aku, is given an experimental emotion chip by one of the scientists ("He was... funny that way"). It's the reason he was the most effective of the X models, and the only one still alive: None of the others had the capacity to care about living, so they had no sense of self-preservation. His emotions prove his downfall, when his love for his dog Lulu forces him to go after Jack.* The 1990s cartoon ''WesternAnimation/TheBotsMaster'' had an [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything evil, monolithic computer corporation]] trying to use brute force processing upgrades to create sentient AI's for its own sinister purposes, and failing every step of the way. Its robots reacted much as a robot built today would: they only had a limited ability to recognize and react to situations, and clearly no actual personality. The hero, meanwhile, had already solved the problem by installing a specific DNA pattern into each personality chip, then having the computer run a simulation of the brain that'd result from that DNA strand, and then having that simulated brain control the robot. The result was a group of robots with individual personalities that acted as the show's supporting cast.* At the end of ''WesternAnimation/TheZetaProject'', it turns out [[spoiler: Dr. Selig secretly installed a sentience chip in Zeta, to rebel against his use as an assassin.]]* While in ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot'' all the people are actually software intelligences, they have also constructed "droids" who are perceived as being robot-like in their virtual world. At one point the virus-controlled Guardians come after [=AndrAIa=] and Matrix, and [=AndrAIa=] asks whether they have "personality chips" because she has scruples about destroying the ones who do. The first batch don't. The second batch do, but it doesn't help much since that means Matrix can scare them away. [[/folder]]----